Ebay - real or fake colognes? Recommendations?

Best suggestion: don't shop on ebay. Go to scentiments or any of the half-dozen other recommended web retailers who will guarantee authenticity, have a decent returns policy, and have prices that are just as good (or sometimes better) than ebay.

With Caron, though, unless you are talking about the fountain fragrances, the prices are generally pretty low (I got PuH for less than $15, Yatagan and 3eme man for $20-25, etc.)

If you are determined to shop ebay, I'd search the archives here for a number of discussions with hints and suggestions.

Here is a link to a current discussion on this forum that has some info on fakes and feedback:
http://community.basenotes.net/showthread.php?t=194249

The more expensive and popular fragrances are the ones most likely to be counterfeit. Things like Creeds Green Irish Tweed. Things from Caron can be had relatively inexpensively so it just does not make sense to counterfeit them. I would be more concerned about damaged goods, fragrance pulled for freshness reasons and/or exposed to excessive heat.

There are a lot of reputable fragrance sellers on Ebay but as a general rule I would agree with John, any of the reputable on-line shops is preferable to Ebay and the price you pay will not be that different.

I guess I have to jump in on this one,...why? Because I just started selling on EBay and ALL my fragrances are 100% REAL.
But!.... I totally agree....there are crooks on EBay. I recently experienced a "watered down" GIT Flacon from a 100% rated seller. While going through this experience I contacted Creed USA and talked to one of the Directors of US sales and he told me he could only guarantee Creed purchased from Neiman Marcus or their twin company, which I forgot the name of.
Oddly, he said he could 'not gaurantee any e-commerce sites'...could be Marketing though.

Mostly all here will testify including myself, legitimate Scentiment transactions. In fact, I will be auctioning a Bois Du Portugal in the next day or two which I bought there close to a year ago, and I gotta tell ya'....this stuff is amazing.But my wife...my wife..thinks it's too strong: (

Back to the story:
So I gathered a counterfitting case and sent it to the EBay seller, arranged a refund, and promised to watch his transactions and "blow the whistle" on him if appeared deceptive in his auctions. I took this course of action because I could tell from phone conversations that I was dealing with a teenager.

My advice is ...if you know (through research here!) the cologne has a reputation of counterfitting, spend the extra bucks at the BIG HOUSE...there is VALUE IN SECURITY.

I second the idea to research the forum and find out who to stay away from, you'll do yourself some good. I have learned sooo much from this forum!

Also, pay attention to splash type delivery systems, as they are easy to dilute.


Hope this helps ; }

Very good point about the fragrances with a splash delivery system.

Chanel is the most duplicated on eBay. Caron has been very cheap for several years. Staying away from Creeds and most other high end frags on eBay may be a good idea, but some very rare ones ones like Patou Pour Homme or Balenciaga Pour Homme are just too difficult to duplicate due to their unusual bottle designs and distinct smells.